The merge was a long-awaited upgrade to the Ethereum network, seeking to make it more scalable and energy efficient. Now that it is complete, Ethereum’s proof-of-work consensus mechanism has been replaced by a proof-of-stake one. PoS consensus uses significantly fewer resources than PoW, making it more sustainable, as well as providing several other benefits. To combat scalability issues, the upgrade integrates the two previously separate chains: the execution layer and the consensus layer. The Ethereum mainnet (the PoW chain) and the beacon chain (the PoS chain) used to operate in parallel. The first part of the ... (full story)